Market and regulatory driven need for increasing sophistication and performance of automobiles leads to the installation of more sophisticated, larger and more powerful internal combustion engines, and a greater amount of ancillary equipment in the automobile. The engine and ancillary equipment needs to be accommodated in a limited space, with the result that automobile engine compartments are increasingly crowded and present significant packaging problems.
Automobile internal combustion engines are mounted to the automobile via engine mounts which support the engine as well as limit the transmission of noise, vibration and harshness from the engine to the automobile structure. The characteristics of an engine mount may be adjustable in use, for example from a compliant setting suitable for isolating the engine from the automobile when the engine is idling to a stiffer setting which provides better control of the engine when the automobile is being driven.
As a consequence of their increasing sophistication engine mounts have become so called service items, which are intended to be replaced, or removed for adjustment or repair and replaced, during the life of the automobile. As a consequence it is desirable to be able to remove and replace the engine mounts easily.
In a conventional arrangement right angle brackets are fitted to the side of an automobile engine block, and secured by bolts which pass horizontally through the brackets an into bores in the block. Each bracket projects generally horizontally away from the engine block and is supported on a respective engine mount. A bolt extends downwardly through an aperture in each bracket and is received into a threaded aperture or fitting in the mount thereby to secure the bracket to the engine mount. Each engine mount is, in turn, supported by a bracket fitted to the automobile structure, typically to a structural part of the engine compartment or a sub-frame.
A problem with this arrangement is that to remove the engine mount it is necessary to access the bolt on top of the mount and unscrew it. Since the engine mount is generally located towards the bottom of the engine it is often difficult or impossible to reach the bolt when the engine is fitted in a crowded engine compartment in an automobile. This is a particular problem with wide V and W configuration engines and the result is that to remove an engine mount it is necessary to remove and/or partially disassemble the engine.
Embodiments of the present invention have been made in consideration of this problem.